This Week on Good Food: Vegan for Passover, The Perfect Apron, Buttermilk Drops

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Courtesy of Hedley and Bennett

Actor/bakery owner Dwight Henry tells us about his popular spot The Buttermilk Drop, we meet the designer behind some of L.A.’s aprons and we cover all things Passover.

Highlights from this week’s show: 

1. The Buttermilk Drop–Dwight Henry is best known as an actor with roles in the award-winning films 12 Years a Slave and Beasts of the Southern Wild. But in his civilian life in New Orleans, he runs a bakery in the 7th Ward called The Buttermilk Drop, that’s famous for a pastry with the same name.

2. L.A’s Apron Designer–Ellen Bennett is the founder of Hedley & Bennett, an apron company based in Los Angeles that is behind the functional and fashionable aprons of a number of L.A. hotspots including Trois Mec, Providence, Animal, Son of a Gun, Baco Mercat, Terroni, Rustic Canyon, Melisse, and many more. She started her company upon seeing swaths of lackluster aprons in American kitchens.

The Maxwell House Haggadah's new cover
The Maxwell House Haggadah’s new cover (The original image is no longer available, please contact KCRW if you need access to the original image.)

3. Maxwell House Haggadah – How a Coffee Company Influenced Passover–If you’re attending a Passover seder this year, there’s some chance the text you’ll use a haggadah published by Maxwell House to guide you through the service. For decades, the coffee company has given the text out for free with cans of coffee, and all those booklets have influenced American Judaism. Rabbi Carole Balin, professor of history at Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion, joins to explain how.

4. How to Keep Vegan During Passover–Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz is the founder of the Shamayim V’Aretz Institute, and he joins us to talk about the challenge of keeping vegan during Passover when grains and legumes are a no-no.

5. Market Report–Laura Avery talks to Amelia Saltsman, author of the Santa Monica Farmers’ Market Cookbook about what she’s cooking for Passover. Find a recipe for her fennel, carrots and radishes with salsa verde on the Good Food blog.

Organic farm Tutti Frutti sells both the fennel and carrots that Amelia uses in her market inspired Passover recipe.

chicken and waffle
Courtesy of Scratch Bar (The original image is no longer available, please contact KCRW if you need access to the original image.)

6. Jonathan Gold Reviews Scratch Bar–Jonathan Gold is the Pulitzer-Prize winning food writer for the Los Angeles Times. This week he reviews Scratch Bar, a “hyper-modern gastropub” in Beverly Hills that’s serving up dishes with quirky presentation.

Scratch Bar

111 N La Cienega Blvd

Beverly Hills

(310) 289-8010

Click here for recommended dishes.

All of Jonathan Gold’s restaurant suggestions are on the Good Food Restaurant Map.

7. Is Mezcal More Interesting than Tequila? This Sommerlier Thinks So…–Richard Betts is a sommelier and author of the The Essential Scratch and Sniff Guide to Becoming a Wine Expert. But this week he talks about how agave based spirits –  tequila and mezcal – have piqued his interest. Betts produces mezcal under the brand name Sombra which can be found in your local BevMo in Southern California.